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Quebec student leaders bring protest message to Queen's

Marianne Breton-Fontaine, editor of Jeunesse Militante magazine and former student union executive at CEGEP de Vieux in Montreal, speaks at a solidarity event at Queen's University. The event was hosted by the Society of Graduate and Professional Students.
Colin Tomchick for the Whig-Standard

Student union leaders from Quebec paid a visit to Kingston Friday in order to spread their message of mobilization.

Three students involved in the recent student strikes spoke in an auditorium at Queen’s University in front of about 30 people. Several audience members wore symbolic red squares pinned to their shirts as sign of solidarity.

The Kingston visit is one of 10 stops on the group’s tour of Ontario.

“I never would have thought I’d be in Kingston, Ontario in a room full of red squares,” said Jeremie Bedard-Wien, one of the student speakers. Bedard-Wien is a member of CLASSE, the main organizing body for the recent student protests in Quebec.

He said the protests are about more than just money. Instead, they are about breaking the changes that are occurring in the province’s political culture.

This culture, he said, has commodified education.

“When you know going to university equals a $40,000 debt you choose the good university and the right programs that will allow you to pay that debt,” he said. “Naturally, you shop for your education.”

This type of thinking is turning universities into corporations, he said. As well, it is turning students off of arts programs in areas such as philosophy and English.

Bedard-Wien, along with the two other student speakers, offered the audience insight into mobilization strategies used in Quebec.

“The real reason of our success is really that we spent two years distributing hundreds of thousands of newspapers, talking to everyone in the cafeterias table by table, waiting an hour, and doing it again,” he said.

Social media is helpful for mobilization, he said, but should not be used as the central platform.

Marianne Breton-Fontaine, another speaker and an executive member of the student union at CEGEP Montreal, didn’t doubt the potential for action in Ontario.

“This is possible. This is possible everywhere to mobilize,” she said. “It’s not about numbers, it’s about what kind of future we want. Do you we choose ignorance, debt and poverty or do we choose alternative directions?”

A mobilization, she said, takes time to organize. Students in Quebec began organizing several years before the strikes took place.

Queen’s sociology professor Vincent Mosco said the tour shows that Quebec students are confident in the potential to spread the movement across provincial borders.

In his opinion, the movement has the capability to develop in Ontario due to similar concerns regarding the state of education. These concerns surround issues such as class sizes and online courses.

That said, he does believe there are some distinct differences between the two, including the fact that Ontario students pay significantly more in tuition costs.

“Ontario students in fact have more reason to protest. At the same time though, Ontario students might be less likely because tuition increases have been more gradual than they have been in Quebec,” he said.

Furthermore, he said, the Ontario and Quebec governments have dealt with tuition concerns in different ways.

“It’s widely agreed that the Quebec government under Jean Charest took a more authoritarian position,” he said.

The Ontario government, on the other hand, has been more open in terms of communicating with students. He believes the Quebec protests were partially caused by students who felt the government was not being responsive to them.

Mosco predicts the Quebec protests will continue until change is seen. Recent prominent international movements such as Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring, he said, have changed the way we look at protests.

“Students perceive it as more of a normal thing to do as opposed to an abnormal deviant act,” he said. “Everyone fears the consequences of joining protest demonstrations but when eveyone around you appears to be doing it you feel more comfortable.”